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Monday, May 02, 2011

My Weekend

At Saturdays White House Correspondents' Dinner, Seth Meyers made the following obligatory jokes about CSPAN:

I'm also honored to be performing for those of you tonight, as well as the handful of people watching at home on CSPAN. CPSAN is of course the official network for wide shots of empty chairs. Every time I tune into CSPAN it looks like they just had a fire drill. CSPAN is one unpaid electric bill away from being a radio station.

People think Bin Laden is hiding in the Hindu Kush, but did you know that every day from four to five he hosts a show on CSPAN?

I'm not complaining about CSPAN mind you, I usually work on NBC so tonight I'm thrilled to be on a network that people actually watch.-Seth Meyers

Sunday Evening, 24 Hours later...

Good evening. Tonight, I can report to the American people and to the world that the United States has conducted an operation that killed Osama bin Laden, the leader of al Qaeda, and a terrorist who's responsible for the murder of thousands of innocent men, women, and children.-President Obama Address to the Nation

Sony news: the NEX-FS100 will be available at the end of May for $4,999 w/o lens and $5,599 with lens.

That's almost $1,000 less than the price previously listed. Unfortunately, I still can't afford it!

I spent the weekend trying to re-install Final Cut Pro to solve a problem I've been having at start-up. I followed the instructions from Apple's website; the second time because I wasn't sure I got it right the first time. Both times it took about three hours as the installer re-installs all the media files, even though they are already there and even though I told it to only re-install Final Cut Pro.

But it didn't work. So looks like I will have to give this app a try: Digital RebellionFCS Remover.

Saturday afternoon I did an impromptu video shoot.Important Tip: Just because you checked that you have the wireless microphone unit doesn't mean the unit has the right adapter cable for the camera you're going to use. For instance: 1/8inch cables don't go in to XLR plugs.

Sunday morning at Boston Media Makers, Steve Garfield had the iRig mic for the iPhone. He says the quality is pretty good. It plugs into the headphone jack of the iPhone...

I didn't even know you could plug a mic into the headphone jack! Downside: though it has an extra plug that let's you use headphones while the mic is plugged in, you can't hear audio while it's recording. Make sure you use a recording app that gives a visual indication of audio coming in, or you risk having problems with audio...Amazon: IK Multimedia iRig Mic Handheld Mic for iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad[$56.95]

DSLRs are everywhere
At Sunday's May Fair in Harvard Square I only saw two people shooting video, and both were using DSLRs. One person was shooting with a Canon T2i, with an assistant holding a Rode VideoMic with a boom pole.

Shooting with Canon T2i and Rode mic

Saw the movie Hanna Sunday evening.
So the pitch for this movie was: Jason Bourne as a 14-year old girl? It's a well made, intense movie, though I didn't enjoy it as much as the Bourne movies. I'm not sure why.IMDB: Hanna